Comment by Eva Churchman
My father was born in Lwow when it was part of Poland. In September 1939 Stalin invaded the eastern half of Poland after Hitler invaded the western half and made Lwow part of Ukraine. Apart from the period from mid-1941 to mid-1944 when it was under German occupation, it’s been part of Ukraine ever since.
My father’s family owned a 4-story apartment building in central Lwow, but it was confiscated by the Soviets and the Ukraine government after 1991 refused to pay any compensation for communist confiscations.
Adding insult to injury, the Ukraine government renamed the street it is in after Ukrainian Nazi supporter Stepana Bandera who was responsible for killing large numbers of Poles during the war.
But it remains a lovely city, distinctly different from others in Ukraine.
Looking at the gregarious Violet in the video who works as a tourist guide, you wonder how many women in Ukraine are now boyfriend- and husband-less because of Biden/NATO’s war and are now ‘on the market’ for one.
Thanks for sharing, Eva. Lviv was on my bucket list before the coup, as it looks like a lovely city, and conveniently very West.
With your background, one might have thought you would support Ukraine in this war – I know there are Poles who blame Putin for all the crimes of the Soviet Union. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Eva says: “most Poles in Poland are anti-Russian for historical reasons, but plenty don’t like Ukrainians either. In NZ the Poles I’ve spoken to have a better worldview and correctly see NATO as having provoked the conflict.”